Remembering the Disabled Murdered by Caregivers
Name: Susan Shea.
Died: October 26, 1991.
Age at death: 19.
Cause of death: Gunshot.
Location: Lincoln Park, New Jersey, USA.
Disability: Autism.
Details:
Susan and her mother, Eileen Shea, were allegedly shot by Susan’s father.
Case status:
Michael Edward Shea (Father); charged with first-degree murder.
Source:
Autism Memorial: Susan Shea
Man Held in Killings in His Home
Name: Jeni Cazares, also called Yeni Lezama, Jenny, or Yeni Cazares.
Died: May 19, 1991.
Age at death: 3 months.
Cause of death: Head injury.
Location: Santa Ana, California, USA.
Disability: Down syndrome.
Details:
Jeny’s mother smashed her head; then her parents both helped hide her body.
Case status:
Oscar Lezama, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, sentenced to 11 years.
Rocio Cazares (Mother), pleaded guilty to being an accessory, sentenced to 5 years probation.
Source:
Mother Charged With Murdering Infant Daughter in Her Apartment
Name: Dorothy Davis.
Died: March 13, 1991.
Age at death: 35.
Cause of death: Gunshot.
Location: Fort Lewis, Washington, USA.
Disability: Depression.
Details:
Dorothy’s husband shot her and tried to pass it off as a suicide due to her depression. The investigation into her death was reopened when detectives realized he had left his jacket, which he had been seen in at the club where he claimed to have been when Dorothy died, at the murder scene. Several years earlier, he had also tried to burn down the house with Dorothy in it.
Dorothy was the mother of two daughters, who now live with her sister. She was pregnant with her third child when she was killed.
Case Status:
Christian Davis (Husband), convicted of murder, sentenced to life.
Sources:
A Pregnant Army Wife Dies in Apparent Suicide But Details Haunt Investigators: “Makes No Sense”
Fort Lewis Man Guilty Of Murder
Name: Unknown; last name may be Lev.
Died: February 22, 1991.
Age at death: 16.
Cause of death: Poisoning.
Location: Jerusalem, Israel.
Disability: Autism.
Details:
This teenage boy’s mother was found guilty of poisoning him.
Case status:
Zvia Lev (Mother), found guilty of murder.
Source:
Autism Memorial: 16-year-old male, Name Unknown
Michael Rotem, “Mother found guilty of killing her autistic son,” Jerusalem Post, February 22, 1991.
Name: Julie Kirisits.
Died: October 21, 1990.
Age at death: 23.
Cause of death: Homicidal violence.
Location: Tonawanda, New York, USA.
Disability: Intellectual disability.
Details:
Julie was beaten, strangled, and stabbed to death by her mother.
Case status:
Patricia Kirisits (Mother); pleaded not responsible due to insanity. Four years later she was “legally discharged from supervision”.
Source:
Court Discharges Mother in Child’s Killing
MOTHER FACING MURDER CHARGE WAIVES HEARING
Name: Matthew Rosio.
Died: October 16, 1990.
Age at death: 11.
Cause of death: Starvation.
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
Disability: Cerebral palsy.
Details:
After seeing a television program on euthanasia, Matthew’s mother deliberately starved him to death.
Case status:
Patricia Rosio (Mother); she was given eight years of probation and ordered to serve a three-month jail sentence, but allowed out 16 hours a day.
Source:
Mother charged with starving her ailing son to death
Milwaukee Sentinel, Dec. 12, 1992, page 1A
Name: Alice Hummel.
Died: Missing October 6, 1990; body not found.
Age at death: 46.
Cause of death: Missing, presumed dead.
Location: Bellingham, Washington, USA.
Disability: Lupus.
Details:
Alice was killed by her husband. Her body was never found, so we don’t know how she died, but her husband told a cellmate that he had fed her poison in a glass of apple juice to “help [her] get to a better place”.
Alice was a retired teacher.
Case status:
Bruce Allen Hummel (Husband), convicted of first-degree murder, sentenced to 45 years; conviction overturned because the jurors had been questioned improperly. Re-tried; convicted of first-degree murder, sentenced to 26 years; conviction overturned because premeditation could not be proved. Convicted of wire fraud for stealing Alice’s disability checks; spent a total of 10 years in prison before release.
Source:
Bruce Hummel
Murder conviction overturned for Bruce Hummel, again, in death of his wife in Bellingham
The Charley Project: Alice Kristina Wehr Hummel
45 years for man who won’t say what happened to wife’s body
Name: Dr. Malanie Desilva Paul.
Age at death: 48.
Disability: Arthritis, depression.
Name: Medhini Paul.
Age at death: 17.
Disability: Intellectual disability.
Name: Anthony Rajiva Paul.
Age at death: 12.
Disability: None.
Died: June 16, 1990.
Cause of death: Poisoned.
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Details:
Dr. Malanie Paul, her 17-year-old daughter Medhini, and her son Anthony Rajiva were killed by her husband, also a doctor, who sedated his family and then attached them and himself to IVs full of poison. Apparently, he had decided that there was “no alternative to death” for his disabled wife and daughter, and had killed twelve-year-old Anthony too because he feared that the boy would enter the foster care system and become “a freak”.
Case status:
Anthony R. Paul (Husband/Father), deceased.
Name: Charles Forester Jr.; also known as Chucky Sweeten.
Died: January 24, 1990.
Age at death: 39.
Cause of death: Gunshot.
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.
Disability: Intellectual disability.
Details:
Citing years of abuse, Chucky’s mother shot her husband Tom, then shot Chucky because she “loved him and knew no one else would take care of him”.
Case status:
Dorothea Sweeten (Mother), charged with murder, died before trial.
Source:
Charles H. Forester Jr. (1950-1990) – Find A Grave
NATION : Woman Held in Family Slayings
Woman kills husband, retarded son
Woman kills husband and son
Name: Samuel Linares.
Died: April 26, 1989.
Age at death: 16 months.
Cause of death: Hypoxia; ventilator disconnected.
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Disability: PVS due to hypoxic brain damage.
Details:
Samuel had choked on a balloon and, eight months later, was still on life support in the hospital. His father went to the hospital, pulled a gun on the staff, shut off the ventilator, and held the staff at gunpoint until Samuel died.
Case status:
Rudy Linares (Father), pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a weapon, sentenced to 1 year probation. Grand jury refused to indict for first-degree murder.
Source:
When life is a fate worse than death
Questions of Law Live On After Father Helps Son Die
FATHER IS CLEARED IN ILL BABY’s DEATH
Grand Jury Rejects Murder Count : Teary Father Not Charged in Death of Comatose Boy
GRAND JURY REFUSES TO INDICT DAD WHO PULLED PLUG ON SON
Samuel Linares (1988 – 1989)